I’ve been picking the nuggets that ring truest to me so far today, now it’s time to weigh in with a big picture follow-up.
Let’s start on the offensive side of the ball.
I’ve been saying it all summer, this offense shows promise, but there are going to moments of inconsistency. Granted, last night was an ENTIRE GAME of inconsistency, but I still expect things like Sudfeld’s fumble, Thompkins 3rd-and-2 drop, and Dobson having trouble fighting through traffic to happen at various times throughout September and October.
The key for the offense will be to build on these moments and not let them continue into the winter months. For that reason, it is a positive to get a bunch of them out of the way now in the preseason.
This was an excellent lesson for this young offense on the road against a team that clearly came to play (as the Patriots should’ve expected). This will be a positive learning experience, but only if they can clean it up.
On defense, I like the resiliency they showed last night as a unit. They were definitely exposed yet again in the middle of the field and that is a little troubling.
Tommy Kelly is clearly going to make an impact this year and I am more excited about him that any other new player. Plug Wilfork back in, draw up an actual game plan, and this defense should be better, but they still had some of the same problems as last year.
Still, plenty to build on here.